"Everything that exists is born for no reason, carries on living through weakness, and dies by accident." - Jean-Paul Sartre
Introduction
Jean-Paul Sartre(1905-1980) is one of the most modern philosophers of our time. Descartes, Kant, Marx, Husserl, and Heidegger are some of the main philosophers that influenced Sartre's view of philosophy. His main focus was existentialism. The basis of it is that the truth of our existence show itself when we experience moments of anguish or terror. Sartre explained existentialism by saying that it is the attempt to draw all conclusions from a main source of total atheism. He was the leading source for existentialists of his time. He became popular during the 1940s.
Biography
Jean-Paul Sartre was born June 21, 1905 in Paris, France. His father, Jean-Baptiste Sartre who was a naval officer, died on September 17, 1906 of yellow fever. The widow had to go live with her family again. In Sartre's biographical essay, Les Mots (Words), he describes how unhappy and lonely he was because of his grandfather isolating him from other children. In 1920 he began his studies in Paris at the lycee Henri IX, then he continued his studies at the lycee Louis e Grand. In 1924 he went on to Ecole Normale Superieure when he successfully won a place; he stayed until 1928. The main function of this school was to prepare students for competitive examination - the Agregation, which is a necessary to a successful teaching career in France. If Sartre was to become a philosophy teacher he would need to score highly. Sartre, however, failed his first attempt at this examination, but then passed in 1929. He then met Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86), she came second to his score. Although the two never married, they did become lifelong partners. Sartre served as an army meteorologist in World War II when he was taken prisoner by the Nazis in the summer of 1940. He was released because the Germans didn't think he was physically fit for the military service. After his imprisonment Sartre became an active participant in the French Resistance to German occupation until the liberation. He also began teaching philosophy in Neuilly, France; and later on in Paris. Sartre was offered the Nobel Prize in 1964, but he declined for fear it would turn him into an institution.
Sartre passed away on April 15, 1980 at the age of 75.
Philosophy
The keyword to Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism is the word existence. He explained existentialism by the phrase "Existentialism is humanism." This basically means that existentialists start from nothing but humanity itself (in his philosophy atheism is taken for granted). This brings us to one of his main themes in his philosophy: what does it mean to be and what is means to be a human being. There are, essentially, two types of beings. The material thing is simply "in itself". This thing is merely a substance. It is completely in the external world of objects. It exists for no reason. However mankind is "for itself". Unlike the first being it has no absolute, fixed external place. Sartre described this by saying "Existence takes priority over essence." This means that by us just being here, being alive, we are more important than nature, or substance.
Sartre believed that man has no innate "nature." Instead of our nature being innate we must create our own. Therefore if we have no innate nature we have nothing to fall back on, thus it is useless for us to search for the meaning of life. Once man realizes there is no meaning to life, that we must live to die, he begins to experience angst, or a sense of dread. Man loses touch with reality and begins to feel alienated (similar to Hegel and Marx's description of alienation). Whomever feels this alienation might begin to have feelings of despair, boredom, nausea, and absurdity. Because we have no meaning in life we create our own; simply by existing you are creating your own meaning to life.
Sartre says that when man is born into the world he is curse with freedom. He says that we are cursed with freedom because it forces us to make our own decisions, no outside authority or god can tell us what to do. Because we have no eternal values to refer to this makes our choices and decisions even more significant. We should never avoid the responsibilities we create with our choices because we made the choice with our freedom. In the same aspect we can't avoid the responsibility of making choices because we feel we have to live up to certain standards in middle-class expectations. The people who do make their decisions based upon these standards will disappear into an impersonal group, because they have fled from themselves into self-deception. What it comes down to is that our decisions are entirely our own, we are forced to make something of ourselves, because of our freedom, and create our own meaning to life.
Major Works
The Imagination (1936)
Nausea (1938)
Being and Nothingness (1943)
Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960)
Truth and Existence (1989)
Quotes
Hell is other people.
Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
Existence has neither cause nor reason nor necessity.
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
It is only in our decisions that we are important.
Bibliography
Thody, Philip, and Howard Read. Introducing Sartre. New York, NY: Totem Books, 1998.
Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World. New York, NY: Berkley, 1994.
by: Kate W.
"Everything that exists is born for no reason, carries on living through weakness, and dies by accident." - Jean-Paul Sartre
Introduction
Jean-Paul Sartre(1905-1980) is one of the most modern philosophers of our time. Descartes, Kant, Marx, Husserl, and Heidegger are some of the main philosophers that influenced Sartre's view of philosophy. His main focus was existentialism. The basis of it is that the truth of our existence show itself when we experience moments of anguish or terror. Sartre explained existentialism by saying that it is the attempt to draw all conclusions from a main source of total atheism. He was the leading source for existentialists of his time. He became popular during the 1940s.
Biography
Jean-Paul Sartre was born June 21, 1905 in Paris, France. His father, Jean-Baptiste Sartre who was a naval officer, died on September 17, 1906 of yellow fever. The widow had to go live with her family again. In Sartre's biographical essay, Les Mots (Words), he describes how unhappy and lonely he was because of his grandfather isolating him from other children. In 1920 he began his studies in Paris at the lycee Henri IX, then he continued his studies at the lycee Louis e Grand. In 1924 he went on to Ecole Normale Superieure when he successfully won a place; he stayed until 1928. The main function of this school was to prepare students for competitive examination - the Agregation, which is a necessary to a successful teaching career in France. If Sartre was to become a philosophy teacher he would need to score highly. Sartre, however, failed his first attempt at this examination, but then passed in 1929. He then met Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86), she came second to his score. Although the two never married, they did become lifelong partners. Sartre served as an army meteorologist in World War II when he was taken prisoner by the Nazis in the summer of 1940. He was released because the Germans didn't think he was physically fit for the military service. After his imprisonment Sartre became an active participant in the French Resistance to German occupation until the liberation. He also began teaching philosophy in Neuilly, France; and later on in Paris. Sartre was offered the Nobel Prize in 1964, but he declined for fear it would turn him into an institution.
Sartre passed away on April 15, 1980 at the age of 75.
Philosophy
The keyword to Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism is the word existence. He explained existentialism by the phrase "Existentialism is humanism." This basically means that existentialists start from nothing but humanity itself (in his philosophy atheism is taken for granted). This brings us to one of his main themes in his philosophy: what does it mean to be and what is means to be a human being. There are, essentially, two types of beings. The material thing is simply "in itself". This thing is merely a substance. It is completely in the external world of objects. It exists for no reason. However mankind is "for itself". Unlike the first being it has no absolute, fixed external place. Sartre described this by saying "Existence takes priority over essence." This means that by us just being here, being alive, we are more important than nature, or substance.
Sartre believed that man has no innate "nature." Instead of our nature being innate we must create our own. Therefore if we have no innate nature we have nothing to fall back on, thus it is useless for us to search for the meaning of life. Once man realizes there is no meaning to life, that we must live to die, he begins to experience angst, or a sense of dread. Man loses touch with reality and begins to feel alienated (similar to Hegel and Marx's description of alienation). Whomever feels this alienation might begin to have feelings of despair, boredom, nausea, and absurdity. Because we have no meaning in life we create our own; simply by existing you are creating your own meaning to life.
Sartre says that when man is born into the world he is curse with freedom. He says that we are cursed with freedom because it forces us to make our own decisions, no outside authority or god can tell us what to do. Because we have no eternal values to refer to this makes our choices and decisions even more significant. We should never avoid the responsibilities we create with our choices because we made the choice with our freedom. In the same aspect we can't avoid the responsibility of making choices because we feel we have to live up to certain standards in middle-class expectations. The people who do make their decisions based upon these standards will disappear into an impersonal group, because they have fled from themselves into self-deception. What it comes down to is that our decisions are entirely our own, we are forced to make something of ourselves, because of our freedom, and create our own meaning to life.
Major Works
Quotes
Bibliography